Opened in 2003, the University of Iowa's Gerdin Athletic Learning Center, 402 Melrose Ave., is designed to provide student-athletes with resources to assist in reaching their academic goals. The Gerdin family recently made a $5 million donation to renovate the center and fund new programming.(Photo: Submitted photo)

The Gerdin family of Solon has made an additional $5 million commitment to help fund renovations and new programming at the University of Iowa athletic learning center that already bears the family's name.

With the family's recent donation, the Gerdin Athletic Learning Center on the UI campus will see additional study rooms, a commons and a café. New programming offered will include the Hawkeye Life Program, a life skills and leadership development program.

Construction work at the center, 402 Melrose Ave., was to begin Monday, with an anticipated completion date of spring 2018.

“Our student-athletes have extremely busy lives, and that means they learn and study at all hours,” Liz Tovar, UI associate athletics director, said in a university news release. "... Thanks to support from the Gerdin family, we can continue to provide all student-athletes with a safe and stable environment to achieve academic success.”

Ann Gerdin and her late husband, Russell, started giving to UI in 1980. Founders of the transportation company Heartland Express, their leadership gift to Hawkeye athletics helped build the Russell and Ann Gerdin Athletic Learning Center in 2003.

Since then, the next generation — Mike and Nicole Gerdin, Julie and Eric Durr, and Angela and Brian Janssen — have joined with Ann Gerdin to carry on the family tradition of philanthropy, according to the release.

“Our family is excited to help Hawkeye student-athletes win, graduate and do it right,” Mike Gerdin, president and CEO of Heartland Express, said in the release.

Iowa student-athletes are graduating at an all-time high of 90 percent, which is second-highest in the Big Ten Conference and is highest among Iowa’s four Division I institutions, according to the release.

Because of the family's long history of philanthropy, the Press-Citizen Editorial Board selected the Gerdin family for its "Person of the Year" recognition in 2012.